Virginia K. Winston¹, Molly R. McKinney², Brian A. Anderson³; ¹Texas A&M University

Both prior learning and the choice of strategy influence the efficiency of behavior, including the allocation of attention. The present study examines the relationship between past experience and the strategic control of attention. Recently, the Adaptive Choice Visual Search task was used to test the effect of completing an inefficient search on the subsequent strategic control of attention. An experimental group experienced a single-target search phase, where a target randomly appeared in either the smaller or larger subset of potential target items (defined by color). Subsequently, they and a control group performed a two-target search, in which the choice to search for one of two potential targets in the smaller (optimal) subset yielded faster response times. The experimental group made more optimal choices in the two-target phase, even though the color distribution of search items was previously task-irrelevant, suggesting that a history of searching inefficiently motivated participants to search more optimally. The current study (N=52) explored the effects of selection history on the strategic control of attention. A Bias-Optimal group experienced a training phase with the target in the optimal subset 100% of the time, whereas a Bias-Suboptimal group experienced a similar training phase but with the target always in the suboptimal subset. Each group then performed a test phase with a free-choice two-target search. Both groups had high (M = 81%) and significantly above chance (p < .001) proportion of optimal choices in the free-choice phase. Regardless of whether participants previously prioritized the smaller or larger subset during training, sensitivity to the color distribution of stimuli translated to an ability to flexibly leverage this distribution to the benefit of search performance rather than a tendency to inflexibly follow a practiced search routine, highlighting the flexible contribution of selection history in the strategic control of attention.